Tom Mackay

Runs Lento Agency from wherever. Sports nut. Brand strategy expert. Currently building brands between time zones.

The Rundown

May 21, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: Human taste will save your brand soul

Also: four women who were right about something small that sold for billions, the best ad hiding inside our masculinity panic, and our monthly list of nice things worth your attention.

Tom Mackay

McCain found the brief hiding inside our masculinity panic

Campaigns

May 20, 2026

McCain found the brief hiding inside our masculinity panic

'The Dad Joke Effect' by adam&eve\TBWA encourages fathers of pre-teen sons to keep them close through laughter and it's absolutely brilliant.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How entertainment brands are winning big time

The Rundown

May 14, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How entertainment brands are winning big time

Also: the power couple quietly building modern luxury's infrastructure, the best brand film of the World Cup before a ball's been kicked, and the inspiration workflow that changed how our team thinks.

Tom Mackay

How entertainment brands are winning big time

Deep Dive

May 14, 2026

How entertainment brands are winning big time

The Entertainment Index 2026 is out and it puts numbers on what most brand strategies haven't caught up with yet.

Tom Mackay

The World Cup hasn't even started and Adidas has already won it

Campaigns

May 12, 2026

The World Cup hasn't even started and Adidas has already won it

Fifty-six million views in five days. A five-minute film that's already entered the conversation with the greatest World Cup ads ever made.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: The $20 smoothie and the weaponization of wellness

The Rundown

May 7, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: The $20 smoothie and the weaponization of wellness

Also: Blake Lively's anatomy of a slow-motion fall, Lay's figured out how to make Messi feel like your mate and how do you make something look real when the default is now fake.

Tom Mackay

Lay's figured out how to make Messi feel like your mate

Campaigns

May 7, 2026

Lay's figured out how to make Messi feel like your mate

While every other sponsor fights for pitch-side boards, Lay's built a WhatsApp group. Ten million people joined before the tournament even started.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How ASICS went from a $27M loss to beating Nike on margin

The Rundown

Apr 30, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How ASICS went from a $27M loss to beating Nike on margin

Also: how Rosalía turned a concert into a living gallery of Goya and Degas, the golden age of title design, and Marc Jacobs turning a bag launch into a scripted drama.

Tom Mackay

How ASICS went from a $27M loss to beating Nike on margin

Deep Dive

Apr 29, 2026

How ASICS went from a $27M loss to beating Nike on margin

The brand that spent a decade on the clearance rack is now outrunning Nike on margin. The playbook is worth understanding.

Tom Mackay

Marc Jacobs taps Rachel Sennott to launch Scene Bag with scripted microdrama

Campaigns

Apr 29, 2026

Marc Jacobs taps Rachel Sennott to launch Scene Bag with scripted microdrama

The writer-actress behind Bottoms and I Love LA brings her signature register — desperate visibility-chasing, played for laughs — to the brand's first episodic content platform.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How the Biebers played Coachella at a different level

The Rundown

Apr 23, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How the Biebers played Coachella at a different level

Also: stop copying campaigns and start stealing questions, the fonts that caught our eye in April, and Pinterest telling you to get off your phone.

Tom Mackay

Pinterest's new campaign has one message: get off your phone

Campaigns

Apr 20, 2026

Pinterest's new campaign has one message: get off your phone

The "go offline" campaign is smart positioning and a transparent corporate maneuver. Both things are true, and that's what makes it interesting.

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: Rory McIlroy's win did more for WHOOP on Masters Sunday than any campaign ever could

The Rundown

Apr 16, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: Rory McIlroy's win did more for WHOOP on Masters Sunday than any campaign ever could

Also: why the beauty industry's skin science claims are finally catching up with it, how Spotify put goosebumps on a billboard, and the Amazon's brand identity hiding in plain sight.

Tom Mackay

Rory McIlroy's win did more for WHOOP on Sunday than any campaign ever could

Deep Dive

Apr 16, 2026

Rory McIlroy's win did more for WHOOP on Sunday than any campaign ever could

How a screenless wristband worth $10 billion rewired sports marketing by making athletes investors instead of spokespeople

Tom Mackay

Inspiration

Apr 15, 2026

The Amazon wrote its own brand. FutureBrand just found the letters.

How 25,000 kilometers of river became a typeface, and why the best detail has nothing to do with satellites

Tom Mackay

Spotify put goosebumps on a billboard and let your body do the rest

Campaigns

Apr 13, 2026

Spotify put goosebumps on a billboard and let your body do the rest

In a year of synthetic everything, a team in Cape Town got a freezer, some feathers and a camera — and made the most honest case for Premium Spotify has ever put out

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: The best creative work in the world isn't coming from New York or London. It never was.

The Rundown

Apr 9, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: The best creative work in the world isn't coming from New York or London. It never was.

Also: the beauty industry's most expensive open secret, stealing soul for your packaging mockups, and Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé and Vinícius Jr. immortalised in LEGO.

Tom Mackay

The LATAM creative revolution didn't start at Cannes. It started in 1928.

Deep Dive

Apr 9, 2026

The LATAM creative revolution didn't start at Cannes. It started in 1928.

A Brazilian manifesto written nearly a hundred years ago describes exactly how the world's best creative work gets made. The industry is only just catching up

Tom Mackay

Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe & Vini Jr. immortalised by LEGO

Campaigns

Apr 6, 2026

Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe & Vini Jr. immortalised by LEGO

"Everyone Wants a Piece" solved the impossible brief hiding inside the obvious one

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How the world's most celebrated restaurant destroyed itself in a single Instagram post

The Rundown

Apr 2, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How the world's most celebrated restaurant destroyed itself in a single Instagram post

Also: how boring businesses are quietly going viral, ur curated list of nice things for March, and Dulux celebrating 65 years of a dog that wandered onto a shoot by accident and never left.

Tom Mackay

Inspiration

Apr 2, 2026

How to make boring businesses go viral

The biggest creative opportunity right now isn't in fashion, entertainment, or tech. It's in the briefs nobody wanted.

Tom Mackay

Dulux marks 65 years of its dog mascot with new campaign

Campaigns

Mar 31, 2026

Dulux marks 65 years of its dog mascot with new campaign

Ogilvy UK's "Life Is What You Paint It" celebrates life's modern milestones for the Dulux mascot's 65th anniversary and makes a quiet case for why the best brand assets are the ones you never kill

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: How Yeti charged 10x and made it feel obvious

The Rundown

Mar 26, 2026

The Weekly Rundown: How Yeti charged 10x and made it feel obvious

Also: cancel culture's complicated sequel, fonts worth knowing before everyone else does, and the most obsessive tequila ad ever made.

Tom Mackay

Yeti Playbook: How Yeti charged 10x and made it feel obvious

Deep Dive

Mar 26, 2026

Yeti Playbook: How Yeti charged 10x and made it feel obvious

Two brothers from Texas ignored every rule of commodity markets, charged ten times the going rate, and let a grizzly bear make their case. Culture did the rest.

Tom Mackay

Patrón hired Guillermo del Toro to film a tequila pour

Campaigns

Mar 23, 2026

Patrón hired Guillermo del Toro to film a tequila pour

His first commercial. Apparently his last — and BBH USA built an entire campaign around that fact.

Tom Mackay

Tom Mackay

The Weekly Rundown: Human taste will save your brand soul

McCain found the brief hiding inside our masculinity panic

The Weekly Rundown: How entertainment brands are winning big time

How entertainment brands are winning big time

The World Cup hasn't even started and Adidas has already won it

The Weekly Rundown: The $20 smoothie and the weaponization of wellness

Lay's figured out how to make Messi feel like your mate

The Weekly Rundown: How ASICS went from a $27M loss to beating Nike on margin

How ASICS went from a $27M loss to beating Nike on margin

Marc Jacobs taps Rachel Sennott to launch Scene Bag with scripted microdrama

The Weekly Rundown: How the Biebers played Coachella at a different level

Pinterest's new campaign has one message: get off your phone

The Weekly Rundown: Rory McIlroy's win did more for WHOOP on Masters Sunday than any campaign ever could

Rory McIlroy's win did more for WHOOP on Sunday than any campaign ever could

The Amazon wrote its own brand. FutureBrand just found the letters.

Spotify put goosebumps on a billboard and let your body do the rest

The Weekly Rundown: The best creative work in the world isn't coming from New York or London. It never was.

The LATAM creative revolution didn't start at Cannes. It started in 1928.

Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe & Vini Jr. immortalised by LEGO

The Weekly Rundown: How the world's most celebrated restaurant destroyed itself in a single Instagram post

How to make boring businesses go viral

Dulux marks 65 years of its dog mascot with new campaign

The Weekly Rundown: How Yeti charged 10x and made it feel obvious

Yeti Playbook: How Yeti charged 10x and made it feel obvious

Patrón hired Guillermo del Toro to film a tequila pour

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